Just crawling out from under the Victorian blanket, Europe was devastated by a gruesome war that consumed the flower of its youth. Tamagne dissects the strands of euphoria, rebellion, exploration, nostalgia and yearning, and the bonds forged at school and on the battlefront, in a scholarly treatise charting the early days of the homosexual and lesbian scene.

Volume 2 focuses on the decline, and the counter-trend, from 1933 to 1939. Volume 1 explores the scenes in three different cities.)

About the Author

Florence Tamagne holds a PhD from the prestigious Institute of Political Studies in Paris, France. A HISTORY, her first book, is unique in its focus on the inter-war period, tracing the evolution of the “second” and “third generations” of homosexuals from the Roaring Twenties to the Fascist backlash.

About the Book

What happened to homosexuals during and after World War II has been described in other books; here, Florence Tamagne traces the different trends in Germany, England and France in the period leading up to that cataclysm and provides important...

What happened to homosexuals during and after World War II has been described in other books; here, Florence Tamagne traces the different trends in Germany, England and France in the period leading up to that cataclysm and provides important background to any understanding of the later events.

The period between the two world wars was crucial in the history of homosexuality in Europe. It was then that homosexuality first came out into the light of day. Berlin became the capital of the new culture and the center of a political movement seeking rights and protections for what we now call gays and lesbians. In England, the struggle was brisk to undermine the structures and strictures of Victorianism; whereas in France (which was more tolerant, over all), homosexuality remained more subtle and nonmilitant.

Volume I introduces the first glimmerings of tolerance for homosexuality around the turn of the last century, quickly squelched by the trial of Oscar Wilde which sent a chill throughout the cosmopolitan centers of the world. Then, a variety of factors came together in the aftermath of World War I to forge a climate that was more permissive and open. The Roaring Twenties are sometimes seen, in retrospect, as having been a golden age for homosexuals and lesbians; and the literary output of the era shows why.

Volume II, however, explores a different dynamic that was also taking shape, and how that played out. The Depression, the rise of fascist movements, and a counter-reaction against what were seen as the excesses of the post-war era contributed to a crackdown on homosexuals, and new forms of repression emerged.

The social and political backlash soon became apparent, first of all in Germany. Repression arrested the evolution of the new mores, and it was not until the 1960s that the wave of liberation could once again sweep the continent.

Tamagne's 2-volume work outlines the long and arduous journey from the shadows toward acceptability as the homosexual and lesbian community finds a new legitimacy at various levels of society. She weaves together cultural references from literature, songs and theater, news stories and private correspondence, police and government documents to give a rounded picture of the evolving scene.

Bibliography, notes, index.

A History of Homosexuality in Europe (1919-1939) was originally published in France by Editions du Seuil. This is Volume II; the complete English translation is also available in one volume.

The concept of sexuality is not only determined by culture, but also by class and gender. Thus, the traditional (so-called “middle-class”) schema of sexuality is the monogamist heterosexual family. It may be associated with economic considerations (the woman does not work),...

The concept of sexuality is not only determined by culture, but also by class and gender. Thus, the traditional (so-called “middle-class”) schema of sexuality is the monogamist heterosexual family. It may be associated with economic considerations (the woman does not work), ideological considerations (the woman does not have independent sexuality, she must embody the image of the “eternal” female and conform to her “womanly role”), and political considerations (the family is a factor of stability within society). This conformist model was spread from the middle class to the working class starting around the end of the 19th century, as a result of the bourgeoisie’s efforts to impose morality upon the masses. Under this highly restrictive definition of the sexual standard, any form of sexuality not conforming to that pattern was categorized as abnormal.

Thus, under the combined pressures of religion, medicine, the law and morality, specific types were born: the child who masturbates, the hysterical woman, the congenital prostitute, the homosexual. The history of sexuality cuts across many fields of human activity and history: it touches on the history of morals, changing attitudes, and in particular how our imagination has shifted over time: the history of representation, as well as the history of medicine, the law, the police, religion and, of course, political history.

Literary history, art history, and the history of language also add to the picture. Attitudes toward sexuality can only be understood in a broad context. The history of sexuality, and thus the history of homosexuality, cannot be described in social terms alone. It sheds light on fields that seem to be quite unrelated, and gives us a better understanding of specific periods. This richness is, at the same time, its principal difficulty; the sources are many, and varied, and it is not immediately apparent that they are related to each other. Working to synthesize all these inputs, the historian sometimes realizes that he has ventured onto grounds which are foreign to him, like medicine and anthropology.

As is true for any history of social attitudes, the historian must make an effort not to apply ulterior values to the population under study. He must also be fully conscious of his own prejudices and acquired views related to his education, his gender, his lifestyle, his social and cultural origin and his personal experience. Then we must consider whether the sources are neutral. In the field of social attitudes, representations and public opinion, we are constantly dealing with subjective documents and with personal testimonies, from which it is sometimes difficult to draw conclusions. Extensive use of historical literature as evidence can likewise entail involuntary distortions. With a question like homosexuality, especially, one may encounter silence, a lack of evidence, or false evidence. Thus with all humility it must be admitted that an ideal neutrality cannot be attained in the history of sexuality, nor even perhaps the approximate truth — much less in the history of homosexuality. We must be aware of that; but that does not mean we have to throw in the towel. There is a minimal truth that is worth seeking, exposing and analyzing. And that is what I will attempt to do in this work.

This is a major contribution to homosexuality\'s history. Systematically thorough, it encompasses a great range and number of sources, gathered finally in a bibliography (novels, memoirs, biographies, psychology essays; in volume 2, national archives, police and magistrate records, and periodicals). The first volume argues that homosexuality, a "high culture" sort, enjoyed a golden age consequent upon the Great War's liberalization of morals. In volume 2, reaction and repression march through the 1930s. Unusually, Tamagne's narrative comparing three countries has a close, nuanced analysis of both homosexuals and lesbians. As their affirmations of sexual identity are available in print, Tamagne demonstrates their outlook as she explicates their prose. She omits ordinary people on grounds that sources are scant and unreliable. (A decade ago, George Chauncey rescued from history's neglect ordinary gay men in the New York of Tamagne's period in Gay New York, CH, Nov '04, 32-1725). Tamagne finds that, although homosexuals and lesbians shared a common subculture, they show striking national differences. Volume 2, a less familiar story, uses materials that are similarly much less well known. A lively read. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

In her first major study, a French historian offers a comparative look at the historical forces that carved out a place, whether celebrated or vilified, for homosexuality in three European capitals. Tamagne is at her best focusing on details of between-the-wars intellectual and cultural life in London, Paris and Berlin, cities that she brings alive in this two-volume work.

She considers Europe's first homosexual political movement, under the guidance of Berlin's Magnus Hirschfeld (he founded the mostly homosexual Scientific Humanitarian Committee in 1897) and its important influence in both London and Paris. Tamagne impressively bridges national and linguistic difference—her study's great achievement—when she describes these international influences. Otherwise, the story she narrates is familiar enough: sexual liberation flourished in the 1920s across Europe, especially in Berlin, but was annihilated in the 1930s by the rise of Nazism in Germany and conservatism elsewhere.

In 1998 Tamagne received her PhD from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, France, where she studied with the renowned French historian Jean Pierre Azéma. Her new two-volume work, published by Algora, focuses on the three most influential European capitals of the period between the two world wars, 1919-1939. The book provides a thorough, balanced account of the homosexual and lesbian communities in Berlin, London, and Paris, emphasizing the resistance homosexuals faced to find a legitimate place in society in these large metropolitan cities. While conducting her research Tamagne examined a broad and impressive array of documents including literature, police reports, news stories and private correspondence, and she has deftly collated this material into a fascinating historical study. Topics range from the German novel and the construction of lesbian identity to the comparison of National Socialist Germany with the democracies in England and France. A History of Homosexuality in Europe consists of three parts.

Part One: A Brief Apogee: the 1920s, A First Homosexual Liberation," provides a brief history of homosexuality, and then examines homosexual life during the 1920s, in the aftermath of World War I. The book explores this "golden era" in terms of social movements, clubs, homosexual publications, nightlife and slang, and provides a comparison of the male and female scenes in the three capital cities: Berlin, London, and Paris.

"Part Two Unacknowledged Fears And Desires: Ambiguous Speech and Stereotyped Images" suggests that homosexuality became commonplace during the inter-war period. Tamagne examines the medical model imposed on homosexuals and compares such views to self-imposed concepts of identity.

[In Volume II]"Part Three: A Facetious Tolerance: Losing Ground Under the Repression" analyzes the years leading up to World War II. The introduction of numerous methods introduced to repress homosexuals in 1933, especially with the rise of fascism in Germany, led to anti-homosexual legislation and a backlash against the permissiveness of the twenties.

Throughout the work Tamagne discusses relevant literature of the period. The wide range of authors represented in the study include Gide, Proust, Radclyffe, Nathalie Barney, Colette, Vita Sackville West, and Virginia Woolf. One of the most significant aspects of the book is Tamagne's deft examination of the impact these individuals made on their respective cultures and their seminal role in the development of attitudes toward homosexuals.

The book will appeal to scholars of history, GLBT studies, and European literature of the period.

Several appendices provide additional valuable material, including German legislation on homosexuality and information regarding the experiments conducted by Dr. Carl Vaernet in 1944 at Buchenwald. There is a detailed bibliography that will be useful to any scholar interested in research of the period.